Day 42 – X-rays/crossing the line

August 5, 2013

This is my second follow-up visit since the operation and the first follow-up visit since the cast was removed. My doctor walked in and extended his hand to shake mine and as I extended my left hand he shook his head and insisted to shake my right hand. Was a bit nervous at this point since I’ve avoided shaking hands with my right hand, that I slowly extended my right hand for him to take a grip. He looked at me and said squeeze. So I squeezed his hand as hard as I could, so hard that it even surprised me. He smiled while he held my hand and told me he was happy with that and then proceeded to give my hand a little shake to the left and the right and that slight jerk. To my surprise I did not feel any pain and he was very happy with that.

They sent me down to x-ray where I was served immediately and then proceeded back to continue my follow-up. I took a picture of the x-rays after the three bones were removed for my hand. This is a picture taken with my phone but I intend to get before and after pictures directly from the hospital on my next visit. I would’ve done this on this visit, however I ran out of time since I was meeting my brother-in-law downtown Toronto to see his new office. So next month you can check back to see the before and after x-rays which are very interesting.

My biggest problem at the moment is my thumb which is very very stiff and will not bend down, especially when fully extended. Apparently this is because of the tendons that may be fused with some scar tissue. Dr. Steven McCabe called in the physiotherapist and explained what he wanted for the next thirty days and told me to make an appointment to see him in another month. The Physiotherapist took me out to the therapy office and proceeded to take measurements of all of my movements as it stood today. They seemed happy with the improvements from the previous month. I was given a new set of exercises to do which I have posted below. I still have to bend my wrist as I was before which is not included in the diagrams below. I still have a lot of pain in my fingers when doing these exercises and the one thing that concerns me is that they now require me to do these exercises every two hours instead of only five times a day.

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All sounding good, except it sounds like you are not seeing the hand therapist very often ?? From my own experience and hand surgeon’s orders, two to three times per week with hand therapist is required for best outcome 🙂

I have been performing the required exercises 8 times a day. I think they needed to thirty days for the wrist to properly heal after surgery since I had a PRC before I start really working on the wrist part. I suppose I will be doing three times a week at the physiotherapist. I start in two days. The physiotherapist at the hospital will be contacting my local physiotherapist in Cornwall just to make clear the process and what is expected between now and my next visit in thirty days to the surgeon in Toronto.